The anti-Israel encampment at DePaul University was removed by the Chicago Police Department on Thursday after a breakdown in negotiations between protesters and the administration and concerns about campus safety after the school had seen weapons, death, violent threats, assault, and the glorification of terrorism.
The DePaul administration shared documentation of various offenses on Wednesday, ahead of the encampment evacuation, including a pellet gun and four kitchen knives. Dangerous encampment defenses were allegedly erected on the campus, including boards on the ground with nails and screws protruding to serve as “traps.”
There were four allegations of criminal battery, with one involving a group of pro-Israel and anti-Israel protesters clashing near the campus on May 5. Security footage showed a man trying to pull away an Israeli flag, leading to a scuffle on the ground between four people. DePaul University’s Divestment Coalition (DUDC) claimed that a Palestinian student was hospitalized by a pro-Israel protester as a result of that incident.
Tens of hundreds of complaints
Among over 635 complaints from neighbors and community members, and 425 complaints from students, faculty, and staff that DePaul received regarding the encampment since it had been established on April 30, one complainant said that they had been attacked as they walked past the campus gate as they returned from a pro-Israel event.
“My son and I watched a group of five masked men carrying Palestinian flags push a Jewish man to the ground and then steal his Israeli flag,” said the complainant.
“I was called a baby killer, a murderer, a genocide supporter. My friends had paint thrown at them, were pushed, and verbally assaulted,” they added.
DePaul recorded one death threat, four credible threats of violence, 13 harassment allegations, and 16 instances of intimidation over the almost two-week period. In one such death threat, a student reported to DePaul Public Safety that she was followed through the quad and overheard her stalkers saying, “I want to kill her” and “I want to rape her.”
“You’re Jewish scum, you do not deserve this,” one anti-Israel activist reportedly told the student. A mother detailed to the administration how her son no longer felt safe at the university as a Jewish student after he and a friend were surrounded by a group of masked students who shouted “verbal threats and antisemitic rhetoric” at them.
According to DePaul, protest signs at the encampment proclaimed, “Die Isra-hell,” and “Kill ur [sic] local billionaire.”
ALTERNATIVELY, THE DUDC said on Saturday that the university had not done enough against the harassment and terrorizing of Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students. DePaul President Robert Manuel said in a Thursday letter that identification bounties had been placed for encampment members, that there were phone threats against the encampment traced to anarchists and hate groups, and that fireworks had been lobbed into the encampment.
Notably, in a May 6 video published by Stop Antisemitism, a masked protester made a hand motion for 10 and seven, likely a reference to the October 7 massacre, followed by a throat-slitting motion.
This was not the only veneration of October 7 or terrorism displayed by anti-Israel protesters. At a Jewish Alliance bake sale, a protester called out: “October 7, motherf*****s.” The protesters also cheered on Hamas, singing, “Yalla yalla, Hamas.”
At one point during the occupation of the campus grounds, a Palestinian flag was raised, emblazoned with the image of Hamas Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obaida. Another poster in the encampment featured the image of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine airplane hijacker Leila Khaled with the text, “By any means necessary.”
Several signs, including one held by an activist with a hammer and sickle shirt, called for an intifada, which one complainant asserted was calling for the killing of Jews.
DUDC said on Instagram on Saturday that the word intifada is “an Arabic word oftentimes used to describe resistance to systems of oppression, yet DePaul continues to mischaracterize it as a threat.”
Students reported 34 instances of antisemitism to DePaul, including Jews being told to “go back to Poland” and “go back to Brooklyn.”
Further, stickers that DePaul said were antisemitic, featuring the Star of David and the German word for Jew, “Jude,” were placed on campus property.
“This past weekend, I was told by someone from the encampment to ‘go home,’” one complaint said. “This is the first time in my 59 years that I have experienced blatant antisemitism. It was horrifying.”
The encampment activists vandalized the campus, spray painting buildings, chaining shut doors, etching glass windows, and causing an “estimated $180,000 in physical plant damages to the quad and surrounding areas,” said DePaul.
Moreover, the encampment caused 25 academic disruptions and 45 university event cancellations. It also caused a nearby Oscar Mayer Elementary School to cancel all of its outdoor activities, leading to complaints from both students and parents.
One student demanded their tuition back, calling on DePaul to “stop canceling classes. “I spent my life savings on this school,” they said.
“I’ve already been advised by police not to visit the quad for my own safety,” said another student. “I was told by people of the encampment that I’m not welcomed at school, and [they] harassed me until I left. How long will I be barred from my own school that my tuition goes to support?”
Several parents told DePaul that they had to take a different route to bring their children to school because they were worried about the protests.
“I drove by your university and walked around yesterday, as my 15-year-old daughter said she was scared to be near the school,” said one concerned parent.
“She works and goes to school in the area.”
THE UNIVERSITY received 48 noise complaints, with several students who live on campus writing to DePaul about their inability to properly sleep or study.
“I am an Israeli, Jewish student who lives in University Hall. I have not slept for the past three nights because of the calls outside of my window for an intifada,” said one student.
A parent demanded action after their daughter and roommate were exhausted because “noise [was] keeping them from studying in their dorm room and sleeping soundly at night.”
DePaul filed a trespassing complaint with the CPD on Thursday, with President Manuel explaining that the situation was escalating, the encampment had “crossed the line,” and “the students leading this protest had lost control of the situation due to the influence of external entities.”
“We had no choice but to act before we lost the ability to provide for the safety of the Jewish members of our community, to protect those in the encampment, to preserve the rights of all other students, and to maintain university operations,” Manuel explained.
Police said that no arrests were made, and the activists dispersed after repeated orders by law enforcement. DUDC claimed on Friday that several students were arrested, causing injuries and the removal of a religious head garment. The quad and green spaces were closed for repairs, and Manuel warned that trespassers would be arrested and suspended.
Nevertheless, hundreds of activists, sponsored by the US Palestinian Community Network, American Muslims for Palestine, the Palestinian American Community Center, and Students for Justice in Palestine Chicago, rallied at DePaul on Friday against the encampment’s clearing.
“Despite DePaul clearing out the student encampment, students will continue protesting,” DUDC said in a Thursday statement. “Despite DePaul’s attempt to destroy our movement, our power is growing with each passing day, and we will not stop until divestment.”
NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN the administration and the encampment came to an impasse on May 11. The university had issued direct responses to the demands of the protesters, offering to create a Middle East center, and said that they would be willing to call for a “mutually agreed upon ceasefire to protect innocent lives, a return of the hostages, and efforts to allocate humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and others in Gaza.”
It refused the encampment’s demands to eliminate an Israel study abroad program, remove board of trustees members with ties to Israel, provide blanket amnesty to activists, and end academic ties to Israeli universities. And while DePaul would establish an investment advisory committee, it said that the intent would not be to divest from Israel.
“I do believe that the students with the Divestment Coalition initiated the encampment with sincere intentions to peacefully protest.
“Unfortunately, the encampment morphed from a peaceful exercise to an unsafe environment that attracted outside agitators, disrupted campus operations, and affected our neighbors’ day-to-day existence in their homes and schools,” Manuel said on Thursday.
“We are saddened that the situation came to the point where law enforcement intervention was necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of all – both within and outside the encampment.”